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Published: August 31st 2019
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Breakfast and send-off fro Mark of Coast to Coast Packhorse. 29 August 2019, Thursday
Day 13 of travel day 9 on the coast to coast.
Our departure from The George Hotel in Orton was followed very closely by a visit to the Orton chocolate factory. This is also known as the Kennedy chocolate factory. After our very nice breakfast we each had a sample of chocolate. You will see a few photos of the chocolates and the shop.
The day was marked by walking across many green rolling hills of pastures, crossing many rock wall fences and a few picturesque views of limekilns and railroad trestles. It was also punctuated by extremely strong winds and gusts with some light rain. For the first time during the walk I had to wear my poncho over everything to help keep me dry and warmer from the blowing wind.
Upon our arrival in Kirkby Stephens at the Jolly Farmer we were greeted by Carol who invited us to go around to the back to leave our boots in the drying room. Then after a nice warm bath, actually my room had a jacuzzi tub which I was so thankful for, we were invited to tea and scones with real clotted cream
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Outside the Jolly Farmer - the best tea n scones ever. and raspberry jam.
I had sent emails ahead to Coast to Coast Packhorse asking if Mark and Peter and others of their team could meet us for dinner that night. They had made reservations for us at the Mango Tree, an Indian cuisine restaurant, here in Kirkby Stephen. But, before this we met our friends Sam and Ayse from Adelaide, Australia, and the two couples from Israel and we all had a drink together at the Black Bull Hotel bar. (see the group photo).
Our dinner was filled with good conversation by Mark and Peter about the business of packages for walkers and moving bags from coast to coast. The fact that Coast to Coast provides 40% of all of the coast to coast trips was an amazing statistic. Mark stated they do over a thousand packages of individuals walking the coast to coast a year. Two of these are Sierra club groups of 17. we had heard from Carol that this has been a very slow season for walkers and many fewer groups than normal.
So after our dinner and conversation we made it back to the jolly Rodger about 9:30 and time for a good
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Struggling along the even surfaces with 60 mph winds and rain night's rest.
Our Stats:. 12.9 miles in 6 hours 21 minutes. Total elevation 840 feet.
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Tot: 0.074s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 13; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0446s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
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